Art in the Parks

Description:

Otterness’s bronze sculpture Large Sad Sphere shows a hunched figure sitting on a block. The figure, with its rotund body and elongated legs, is recognizable as Otterness’s signature style and part of the cast of characters that populate the artist’s work. This work is another entry in the artist’s continued exploration of, and interest in, the interaction of the public with his work.

Tom Otterness has several previous works on permanent view throughout the city, including the MTA’s commissioned work Life Underground on view primarily in the 14th Street/Eighth Avenue subway station. Otterness’s work will be concurrently on view at Marlborough Chelsea in Tom Otterness: The Public Unconscious on view from October 4 through November 3, 2007.

Presented by Marlborough Chelsea, in cooperation with the Hudson River Park Trust.

Description:

Milestones to Recovery celebrates the rebirth Lower Manhattan has experienced over the past five-and-a-half years, through the exhibit of 30 4-foot by 6-foot photographs.

"In the aftermath of 9/11, New Yorkers gathered in their parks as they remembered, reflected and tried to recover," said NYC Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe. "Susan Watts's striking photographs in Milestones to Recovery eloquently and emotionally capture the spirit of this vibrant community as it overcame and thrived. We are proud to be a part of this recovery process and to welcome residents and visitors back to The Battery as they witness the remarkable resilience that Lower Manhattanites have demonstrated."

Susan Watts has been an award-winning photojournalist in New York for more than 13 years. A staff photographer at the Daily News since 1995, she covers top local, national and international news stories. Her 9/11/01 work is archived in the permanent photography collections of both the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress.

A native New Yorker, Ms. Watts attended New York University and graduated in 1991 with a bachelor of fine arts in film.

Description:
According to artist Jim Johnson, there is the arguable theory that the Neanderthal tribe became extinct simply because of its reluctance to move, and accordingly, the subsequent depletion of their nearby food sources; in contrast, Homo Sapiens have circumnavigated the earth, and even set foot on our moon. The inherent desire to move is almost always the first freedom from which humans are deprived when their kingdoms are overrun by other warring tribes. In the case of the great white shark, the absence of a gill-pump requires the species to move continuously, mouth slightly open, directing an endless flow of sea water over the gills in order to extract oxygen: if they stop moving, they will die.

Description:

Seth Weiner’s myOpticon resembles coin-operated viewing devices often found in scenic parks and at the tops of skyscrapers. Rather than providing views of distant landscapes, Weiner’s myOpticon provides a thermal image of its immediate surroundings. The thermal image is created by a camera that filters out all visible light, constructing an image of only long-wave infrared radiation emitted by all objects in proportion to surface temperature. This appears equally as vivid in pitch-blackness as in broad daylight. Warmer surfaces glow brightly, while cooler surfaces appear dim.

Weiner’s myOpticon continues the artist’s exploration of the intersections between the public, art, and technology.  Weiner’s work, The Fortunate Islands, was previously shown in Thomas Paine Park in January and February of this year.

Funded by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

Description:

Two smaller than life-sized tourist cabins—complete with interior lighting and a satellite sculpture—will inhabit the Park Avenue median at 52nd to 53rd streets. These sculptures come out of Dennis's continuing artistic discussion with the "cabin" as an icon both in the artist's personal lexicon and in the larger world.

Drawing inspiration from overlooked fragments of vernacular architecture both rural and urban, Dennis is known for her complex, lyrical, and metaphorical sculptural installations. The sculptures are presented with the support of the Fund for Park Avenue.

Description:

Haring’s sculpture is the fourth in an edition of seven. The large-scale version was displayed on Park Avenue at 60th Street as part of a multi-site exhibition of Haring’s on the avenue in 1997. Sculptures by Haring, who painted the Crack Is Wack and Carmine Pool murals, were also displayed at Riverside Park in 1988 and Dante Park in 1992.

During his brief but prolific career during much of the 1980s, Haring was featured in over 100 solo shows and group exhibitions. Haring died of AIDS-related complications in 1990 at the age of 31. Prior to this death, Haring founded the Keith Haring Foundation to provide funding and imagery to AIDS organizations and children’s programs, as well as to expand the audience for Haring’s work through exhibition, licensing of his images, and publications.

Description:
This major exhibition of sculpture by Alexander Calder is the first multi-work presentation of the artist's iconic sculptures in New York's outdoor spaces. Alexander Calder in New York is the fourth exhibition sponsored by Forest City Ratner Companies that the Public Art Fund has organized in City Hall Park since 2003. The exhibition includes five of Calder's large metal "stabiles" (what Calder called his freestanding, nonmoving sculptures) and one of his signature hanging mobiles, which will be shown in the dramatic rotunda of City Hall.

It's My Park segment about Alexander Calder exhibition.

Description:

Artist William Wegman presents Around the Park, a new video work, on four outdoor monitors near Madison Square Park’s popular food kiosk Shake Shack. The approximately seven-minute-long video stars Wegman’s favorite cast of characters as they enjoy a fall day in Madison Square Park.

Opening concurrently at Senior & Shopmaker Gallery on Madison Square Park is Wegman Outdoors, an exhibition of the artist’s landscape photographs dating from 1981 through 2007. William Wegman’s photographs, video tapes, paintings, and drawings have been exhibited in museums and galleries internationally. Funney/Strange, a retrospective of Wegman's work organized by the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, with a catalogue published by Yale University Press, completes its two-year tour this fall at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio.

A project of the Madison Square Park Conservancy.

Description:

Obelisco Transportable is artist Damian Ortega's variation on the ancient form of the obelisk. The artist characterizes Obelisco Transportable, which appears to have been uprooted from a previous location, as "a mobile landmark" that one could potentially move anywhere to commemorate anything. It offers a pragmatic yet wryly playful approach to a global society in which the balance of power is constantly in flux, and in which populations shift and drift from one place to another.

Damian Ortega was born in 1967 in Mexico City and now lives and works in Berlin. In 2003, his work was featured in the 50th Venice Biennale. His recent major solo shows include "The Beetle Trilogy and Other Works," Gallery at REDCAT (The Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theatre) and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2005); and "The Uncertainty Principle," at Tate Modern, London (2005).

Organized by the Public Art Fund.

Description:
Cheryl Farber Smith's aluminum sculpture fuses simple geometric shapes to create a composition that simultaneously suggests motion and repose. Painted with a high-gloss red finish, it stands 9'4" high, 7'5" wide, and 5'7" deep.